2008 5th International Conference on Electrical Engineering, Computing Science and Automatic Control (CCE 2008)
Bits Planes Technique for Digital Image Processing
Norma Ramírez Hernández1, José Luis Ramos Quirarte2
1
Department of Computational Sciences, CUCEI-Universidad de Guadalajara, Jalisco, México
2
Department of Electronics, CUCEI-Universidad de Guadalajara, Jalisco, México
Phone/Fax: (33) 1378-5900/7728 E-mail: mirandapartida@terra.com.mx; jlrquirarte@yahoo.com.mx
Abstract –– This work presents a technique for digital image
processing. The technique consists on splitting the original
image with 256 gray levels into its equivalent 8 binary images.
The method is extended for true RGB color images by working
out each color plane as a gray scale image and applying the
same algorithm development for the former case to convert any
intensity level into a byte of 8 bits. The results shown out to be
useful for some basic applications such as separating the fine
features of an image. Memory space for storing images is
reduced since the images can be written in binary formats. Bits
planes technique allows for logical operations and after that,
get back to a gray scale image or color image very easily. The
potential application of this technique is being studied in order
to detect some anomalies in digital mammographies. A script in
MatLab has been development with some menus to implement
the bits planes technique for different image formats.
Keywords –– Bits Planes, Color Bits Planes, Digital Image
Processing, Gray Scale Image, RGB Color Image
I. INTRODUCTION
During the last years with the increasing use of the
computer and its associate software, the digital image
processing has become a powerful tool. Several methods
and a multitude of algorithms have been development to
perform processing on images and to explore new
applications.
One of the major objectives of digital image processing is
oriented to improve the image appearance. Some techniques
are designed to suppress interferences or noise, to enhance
contrast, etc. But also the measurements of some features of
the image are important to do automatic processing. The
areas of application of the digital image processing are
growing very fast. For example, in medicine it is used to
improve X-ray images, to understand with better accuracy
the body´s functions, the effects of some drugs by analyzing
pictures with colored substances, to investigate the features
and behavior of tumors, etc. In the artistic field, digital
processing is used to restore photographs and famous
pictures that have been deteriorated. Another application is
in reconstruction and improvement of images send by
spatial missions, photographs of satellites for weather or
natural resources applications. Today, an important area that
needs more and more image processing are movies and
electronic games industries. Of course there are several
military applications of digital image processing [1].
IEEE Catalog Number: CFP08827-CDR
ISBN: 978-1-4244-2499-3
Library of Congress: 2008903800
978-1-4244-2499-3/08/$25.00 ©2008 IEEE
In this work a technique based on decomposing an image in
its bits planes is presented to do digital image processing.
II. METHODOLOGY
To separate an intensity image into eight bits planes, we
proceed as shown in Fig. 1. The intensity of each pixel in
the original image is considered to be some value between 0
and 255 that is converted in a byte of 8 bits. Depending of
the intensity value of each pixel on the original image, there
will be a bit on one, some or all the bits planes. By scanning
the whole image, there will appear eight images that
correspond to the eight bits planes; from the least
significative B0 to the most significative B7.
To transform the complete image, a simple algorithm was
implemented and it is described in the following steps:
1.- We start with the first pixel on the image: r=[i], c=[j];
2.- The intensity level of the pixel is read: Level;
3.- If Level=0, the least significative plane has a zero:
b(0)=0;
4.- If Level 0, the planes that have ones must be
determine:
5.- While Level 1
6.- The half part of Level is calculated: Half=Level/2;
7.- Half is rounded towards zero: Rounded;
8.- The difference between Half and Rounded is calculated:
Dif=Half-Rounded;
9.- If Dif=0, the plane gets a zero: b(q)=0;
10.- If Dif 0, the plane gets an one: b(q)=1;
11.- The value of Level is adjusted: Level=Rounded;
12.- We move to the next most significative plane: q=q+1;
13.- Steps 5 to 12 are repeated until Level<1;
14.- Zeros and ones are collocated in the different image
planes: If b(0)=0, B0(i,j)=0, if b(0)=1, B0(i,j)=1; if b(1)=0,
B1(i,j)=0, … if b(7)=1, B7(i,j)=1.
15.- Auxiliar variables are reset and the level of the next
pixel is read;
16.- Steps 3 to 15 are repeated until the whole image is
scanned.
The images corresponding to the different bits, from the
least significative to the most significative, will be
represented by the matrices: B0(i,j), B1(i,j), …B7(i,j),
respectively.
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 2008 5th International Conference on Electrical Engineering, Computing Science and Automatic Control (CCE 2008)

Fig. 2. Image of Saturn in tiff format, 328X438 pixels in size and 0 to 255
gary scale

In Fig. 3 are presented the eight bits planes obtained when

Fig. 1. Splitting a digital image on eight bits planes from B0 to B7 the bits planes script was used for the image of Fig. 2. The
first image represents the least significative plane (B0) and
the last one correspond to the most significative (B7).
Binary Plane, B0 (the least significative) Binary Plane, B1

III. RESULTS

A. Bits Planes for an Intensity Image

There are many different type of formats for images: images

.tiff (tagged image file format), that can be an indexed color
image, a true RGB color image, or a gray scale image; Binary Plane, B2 Binary Plane, B3

images .jpeg (joint photographic experts group), it can

represents a true RGB color image, or a gray scale image, a
image .pbm (portable bitmap) is very appropriate for binary
images; etc.

Due to the great multiplicity of image formats, during the

development of this work, a script in MatLab was written to Binary Plane, B4 Binary Plane, B5

select throw a menu a desired image among different kind of

image formats. In order to minimize the computer time, if
the image is too big, there is an option to reduce it to an
image of about 500X500 pixels. The image is also converted
to a gray scale image for some applications.

A script in MatLab was also development to implement the Binary Plane, B6 Binary Plane, B7 (the most significative)

algorithm to obtain de bits planes outlined before and some

results are shown in the following.

In order to apply the development algorithm, the image

shown in Fig. 2, that represents an image .tiff of 328X438
pixels in size was chosen and converted to a 0-255 gray
levels.

Fig. 3. Bits planes for the image of Saturn in Fig. 2

IEEE Catalog Number: CFP08827-CDR

ISBN: 978-1-4244-2499-3
Library of Congress: 2008903800 187
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 2008 5th International Conference on Electrical Engineering, Computing Science and Automatic Control (CCE 2008)

B. Recovering the original intensity image
In order to recover the original image, each matrix
corresponding to each bits plane, has to be multiply by the
appropriate decimal: the B0 plane has to be multiply by 1,
the B1 plane by 2, the B2 plane by 4, … , the B6 plane by
64, and the B7 plane by 128. After that, all matrices can be
added and the original image is obtained.
Sometimes it is convenient to enhance or to show only some
intensities of a mammography for further processing. For
purposes of time consuming, in Fig. 5 it is shown a reduced
original mammography and in Figs. 6 and 7, there are
shown images obtained by the use of AND and OR logic
operations of some of the bits planes for the image of Fig. 5
where some relevant characteristics of the mammography
are enhanced.

Since the bits planes least significative contribute only with Converted image from RGB.jpeg to gray scale

the finest details of the image, the addition of the five most
significative bits planes will give an image that is almost as
good as the original is. This is shown in Fig. 4.

Image of the restored Planes: B7, B6, B5, B4 and B3

Fig. 5. Mammography used for processing

Image of the logic Operation AND: Planes B6 and B5

Fig. 4. Image composed of the five most significative bits planes

One of the most attractive results by splitting the image in

its bits planes is in saving memory space for storing
inasmuch the original is only one and the resulting bits
planes are eight, these are binary images that can be stored
with a convenient format, like for instance .pbm (portable
bitmap) that requires very few memory.
Fig. 6. Logic operation: AND between B5 and B6 planes

C. Logic Operations with Bits Planes Image of the logic Operation OR: Planes B7 and B6

Since the resulting images for the different bits planes are all
them binary images, it allows the direct use of logic
operations between them. During the last few years, the
digital image processing has been used with great success in
medical applications. One of the most promising
applications is the possibility to be able to make diagnoss of
cancerigen tumors during the early faces throw the good use
of digital mammographies [2-6].

Since the fact that tumors appear in the mammographies as

spots of certain intensity, it seems useful to simplify the
original mammography throw logic operations in order to
extract some useful information for further processing. Fig. 7. Logic operation: OR between B6 and B7 planes

IEEE Catalog Number: CFP08827-CDR

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 2008 5th International Conference on Electrical Engineering, Computing Science and Automatic Control (CCE 2008)

D. Bits Planes for a RGB True Color Image Color Image: Blue Plane

A RGB Image is stored as a three-dimensional (m-by-n-by-

3) array of integers in the range [0, 255]. The three planes
correspond to the red color, the green color and the blue
color respectively. Fig. 8 shows a RGB image that has been
reduced in size in order to get better computer response.
Throw a computer program made in MatLab, it is possible
to see the three color planes of the color image. These color
planes are shown in Figs. 9, 10 and 11.

RGB color Image .jpg for processing

Fig. 11. Blue plane of the RGB color image of Fig. 8

In order to obtain the bits planes of the RGB color image,

each color plane (red, green and blue) is worked out as a
gray scale image with 0 to 255 levels and using the same
software that implements the development algorithm.
Obviously, in this case it will be 24 bits planes, 8 for each
color plane. In Fig. 12 are presented two bits planes of the
eight corresponding to each color plane.
Color Image: Red Plane; B4 Color Image: Red Plane; B6

Fig. 8. Original RGB color image

Color Image: Red Plane

Color Image: Green Plane; B3 Color Image: Green Plane; B4

Color Image: Blue Plane; B3 Color Image: Blue Plane; B5

Fig. 9. Red plane of the RGB color image of Fig. 8

Color Image: Green Plane

Fig. 12. Examples of bits planes in intensity for each color plane of Figs. 9,
10 and 11

As it was explained before, the bits planes shown in Fig. 12,

correspond to intensity bits planes so if it is desired to obtain
bits color planes, it is necessary to fuse the bits planes of the
three color planes in the appropriate order: B0r+B0g+B0b,
B1r+B1g+B1b, … etc. the software includes this option
allowing us to observe the behavior of the bits color planes.
Fig. 10. Green plane of the RGB color image of Fig. 8

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 2008 5th International Conference on Electrical Engineering, Computing Science and Automatic Control (CCE 2008)

The resulting planes for the image of Fig. 8 that also Red Color Image. All the Planes

represents the fusion of the 24 bits planes like the shown in

Fig. 12, are presented in Fig. 13.

Color Image: Color Plane, B0 Color Image: Color Plane, B1

Color Image: Color Plane, B2 Color Image: Color Plane, B3

Fig. 14. Red plane recovered from the bits planes

Green Color Image. All the Planes

Color Image: Color Plane, B4 Color Image: Color Plane, B5

Color Image: Color Plane, B6 Color Image: Color Plane, B7

Fig. 15. Green plane recovered from the bits planes

Blue Color Image. All the Planes

Fig. 13. Bits color planos for a RGB image

E. Recovering of the RGB Image

To recover the original color image, one proceeded in an

analogous way to the case of images in levels of grey.
Nevertheless, due to the own characteristics of the images
RGB, we put in the program two procedures: The first one
consists of adding in a considered way every plane of bits of
every plane of color of an independent way to obtain hereby
three planes of intensity corresponding to every color. The
result obtained for the example of the Fig. 12, it appears in
the Figs. 14, 15 and 16. The image in color is obtained by Fig. 16. Blue plane recovered from the bits planes
merging the three previous planes. The result is showed in
the Fig. 17.

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 2008 5th International Conference on Electrical Engineering, Computing Science and Automatic Control (CCE 2008)
Restored Color Image with Restored Planes
Fig. 17. RGB image recovered from the 24 bits planes
The second procedure incorporated in the program consists
of the merger of 8 bits color planes. For the example
presented in this work, it corresponds to the planes showed
in the Fig. 13. The result as it was of waited, coincides with
the image of the Fig. 17 and it is shown in the Fig. 18.
Color Image: Made of all the Color Planes
Fig. 18. RGB image recovered from the 8 bits color planes
F. Logic Operations with the Bits Color Planes
In the case of the images in levels of grey, binary planes are
obtained. Then it is possible to realize logical operations
with the diverse planes of bits. In this case, it is feasible
realize logical operations with planes of bits correspondents
to every plane of color or, to experiment with planes of bits
of two or of three planes of color depending on what one
tries to show. The obtained results are very interesting, but
there would be necessary to analyze images with different
characteristics in order to be able to do appropriate
recommendations.
IEEE Catalog Number: CFP08827-CDR
ISBN: 978-1-4244-2499-3
Library of Congress: 2008903800
978-1-4244-2499-3/08/$25.00 ©2008 IEEE
IV. CONCLUSION
This work has presented a method to separate into its
elements an image in levels of grey to his representation in 8
binary planes and from an image RGB to color in his 24
binary planes or equivalently to his 8 binary planes to color.
The fundamental intention of this work is to present this
technology as one more tool, which allows enhancement the
digital processing of the images. Eliminate some
characteristics, highlight others or stand out certain
information, and inclusive to save space of storage or of
sending of information.
Interesting results have been obtained for both types of
images but it is important to mention that practical
applications like the Figs. 5-7 are very promising but the
study is in process since a great quantity of cases they have
to be analyzed to obtain conclusive results. With regard to
the use of the logical operations with the planes of bits, it
allows to eliminate or to extract with facility certain
characteristics of the image, such as its thin details. With the
purpose of enriching this technology, one is employed at the
search of finding correlations with other characteristics.
Example: with the histogram of the image.
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